anything with Gunn, lest Jag hear about it and question my loyalty again.
I led, walking fast across the close-knit rooftops and waving off Gunn’s repeated questions. He’d see for himself soon enough.
After only a few minutes, we arrived on the scene. I blinked, activating the recording capabilities of my cache before I looked down.
Gunn and I stood on a ten-story building, looking down on complete mayhem. The open area was circular, with banners and flags waving every few feet. A celebration had obviously been interrupted, but by whom and for what reason I couldn’t determine.
All I saw were crazy-mad people crying in crazy-loud voices about something I didn’t understand.
A group of Thinkers stood in the middle of the fray, wearing bright-as-the-summer-sky blue robes, holding their hands out in the same placating gesture.
“What are they saying?” Gunn asked.
“I don’t know.” I listened, but the voices combined into a cacophony of anger and fear and desperation.
“Equal rights,” a voice nearby said.
Both Gunn and I startled. A boy, not more than ten, stood on the roof about fifteen feet from us, surveying the madness below.
“Who are you?” Gunn asked, edging the tiniest bit closer to me.
“Stone,” he said, still not looking at us. Like we didn’t even matter.
“Equal rights?” I asked.
“Yeah, you know, like education and food and water and stuff.”
“You don’t have food and water and . . . stuff?” I asked. I liked this kid already.
“We used to. Everyone did. Everyone had the same stuff, actually. Same clothes, same rations, same houses. Now—” He finally turned to look at me, and I saw how sunken his cheeks were. “Now we don’t.”
“What happened?” Gunn gestured down to the open area. “What happened to make them act like that?”
“They woke up,” Stone said.
Jag
19.
Even when Pace gave me another dose of meds.
Even when “he” came over and said, “I can just go if you want.”
“It’s fine, Thane,” I said. “I need the information you have.”
“I reported two nights ago when I woke up.”
“Sure, yeah, whatever. I need the information you have.” I sat at the head of the war room table with only a small contingent surrounding me. Pace, Vi and Saffediene, and Gunn and Zenn, who needed to report on why they couldn’t finish their objective in Lakehead.
My only consolation was that Indy had opted to stay back in the infirmary. I couldn’t have handled her here too. I’d given her an assignment she was less than pleased with, but someone had to watch Thane while our plans moved forward, and I couldn’t spare anyone else.
Her displeasure at my decisions reminded me so much of Vi.
“You’ve seen some of what I know already,” Thane said, and I read between the lines. The cloning experiments. I nodded in unspoken acceptance. “I gave you everything else I know.”
I swiveled in my chair. “Vi, if you would, please.” I hated putting her in this position, but I couldn’t read the joker’s mind. I could, however, feel a massive vein of deceit flowing through the room. Nearly all of it emanated from Thane.
And the rest?
Zenn. The guy held a secret, and no one was leaving here without me knowing what it was.
I tapped my foot against the chair leg, waiting for Vi to excavate the information I needed.
“He knows what Van’s plan is,” Vi replied.
“Which is?”
“He wants General Director,” Thane said stiffly, cutting a tight look at his daughter. She returned it in force. Ah, how I loved her.
“Keep talking,” I said.
“I maintained Rise Twelve, as per Resistance instructions,” he said. “Starr Messenger was supposed to take over, and she’s a fighter. I left her a file that was only to be opened if I didn’t return. I can only assume she gave it to Mason Isaacs when he was appointed Director of Twelve.”
“And what was in the file?” I asked.
“Instructions for how to arm the Citizens of Twelve. How to bring in the Insiders. I knew that if I disappeared, Van would know I’d double-crossed him. He’d start with the Insiders. Van’s biggest problem is his craving for power. He cannot tolerate people disobeying him.”
“Hmm,” I said. “Sounds like a common thread among Thinkers.” I steepled my fingers under my chin, ignoring the pull of skin on my back. After two days of rest, my head and thigh were almost healed. But my back . . . Ouch. Pace had used sealant last night to keep two of the wounds together.
“We know he wiped out the Insider hideouts,” Zenn said. “What’s his next move?”
Thane looked at Zenn, and his jaw unclenched. I watched their exchange with interest. They both had a cache, they both served both sides, they both didn’t have my trust. For all I knew, they’d been working together— against me—for years.
“You’re in a room full of people,” I reminded them. “Speak out loud. General Director Darke is in Freedom. What do you know about that, Thane?”
Zenn slid a piece of paper from my own notebook toward me in response. I didn’t look at it.
“Van is looking for a replacement,” Thane said. “And he didn’t wipe out the Insiders, as I was telling Zenn. Isaacs was able to bring most of them in. The casualties were very low.”
“Define low,” Zenn said, clearly agitated.
“Less than two dozen.” Thane delivered this news with calculated coolness. Typical Thinker. No emotional attachments.
I suppose I was just like them. “How do you know all this?” I caught Gunn’s eye, and he nodded. The information so far had matched everything Starr had been caching us.
“I have talents too,” Thane said. He didn’t even blink. I knew his talents all too well. Voice and mind. A lethal combination.
“No,” Vi whispered, but it sounded like a shout. She shook her head, looking from Thane, to me, to Zenn. “No.”
“What?” I asked.
“No,” she said again, more forcefully now.
“Violet,” Thane said.
“Tell me,” I commanded.
“Van Hightower is looking for his replacement,” Thane said. “He believes his appointment as General Director is coming soon.”
“And?” I prompted.
“He wants Zenn,” Vi said, anguished.
I looked down at the paper Zenn had passed me. The note read,
Voices broke out, but I sat silent, staring at Zenn’s message. He sat silently too. When he caught my eye, he jerked his head toward the closest hallway. I stood up and followed him into the tunnel.
“Well?” Zenn asked.
